INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[herebynightfall]

Having a tough time finding organic feed down here. Looked at Tractor Supply, Rural King, Tops, and a few other places, but no dice. Does anyone else do organic/know where I can get some SE of Indy? I'll even order it online if needed.

 

[bradselig]

I have been looking for ideas for a brooder. I would love to use a long metal water trough, but they I realized how expensive they were. Does anybody have any other ideas? Preferably cheap or not extremly expensive.

I use Rubbermaid totes covered with hardware cloth. Cheap, easy to move around and easy to clean.

 

[danand]

Herebynightfall-Hey! I'm in Decatur county too. South of Gburg.

Ccccccc- I use big rubbermaide tubs too. And I use the old fashioned expandable window screens over the tops, so I can turn them or use them on different size tubs.

 

[herebynightfall]

Herebynightfall-Hey! I'm in Decatur county too. South of Gburg.

Yay!

I'm in town (Gburg). Nice to see someone close by here!

 

[ShawnaScott]

Newbie question: if you raise chickens for eating, do you process yourself or is there a place that will process for you? I wouldn't mind raising some meatbirds for eating, but I don't think I could stomach the processing part.

For the amount of chickens you have, about a kilobuck or more.

You might use an outdoor storage shed, but the wind where you live would be hard on the metal ones. I had one years ago and the Lebanon country winds rattled it until metal fatigue took hold and it started coming apart piece by piece. It was the second to meet it's demise out here. I failed to secure the first one to the ground. The wind picked it up, leaving all the contents setting, and blew it a couple hundred yards. It was all bent to h*ll.

For a quick, temporary shelter, you could simply make a box out of 1/2" plywood, using 2x4's at the joints and screws to attach, similar to the way you attached the 2 pieces of plywood in your basement pen. Even working by yourself, with a screw gun and some drywall screws, it shouldn't even take all day. With grass as the floor, make a 4 sided box 8x8 x 4 high. Cut out a section for a door big enough for you to get in when necessary and for the chickens to come and go. With your coyote situation, you need to close and lock the door each night before dark.

Go to Rural King and get some 2x4x48" welded wire ($70 for 100 feet) and 10 or so "T" style metal fence posts and however much length 2x4x48 wire you want/need and a very small roll of electric fence wire to wire the fence wire to the posts. Ask if they have a post driver for loan. If not, you can borrow mine.

Aw, heck. Call me 765-894-1674. Then come down to Lebanon and I'll show you how to do it. It ain't that hard. Do it yourself. Girl power. 6 sheets 1/2" plywood, 100 ft wire, 10 fence posts, some wire (I'll give you enough for the project) and some work. If the other girl that was there when I was there is available to hold stuff while you screw it or pound it, you can be done with the whole blasted thing in 6 hours. Of course, it will be ugly, but cheap and functional.

I forget stuff, so remind me about rebar tiedowns. Don't want the wind to grab it and send it to the next county.

John

Thanks for the info! DH was reading posts with me this morning and saw your instructional. I came home from work to find a half finished coop! You shamed him properly. I would have built the coop myself but I have a disease that makes it very painful to lift my arms above my head or to lift any amount of weight for an extended period. I know, I'm a wuss.

I have been looking for ideas for a brooder. I would love to use a long metal water trough, but they I realized how expensive they were. Does anybody have any other ideas? Preferably cheap or not extremly expensive.

I use both a metal trough and a plywood box brooder. I bought two pieces of the cheap plywood for about $10 each, nailed it together to form an "L" shape and pushed it into a corner. My floor is concrete, so I put the pine shavings directly on the floor, but you could put down a tarp and then shavings.

 

[jsummers]

On

Newbie question: if you raise chickens for eating, do you process yourself or is there a place that will process for you? I wouldn't mind raising some meatbirds for eating, but I don't think I could stomach the processing part.
Thanks for the info! DH was reading posts with me this morning and saw your instructional. I came home from work to find a half finished coop! You shamed him properly. I would have built the coop myself but I have a disease that makes it very painful to lift my arms above my head or to lift any amount of weight for an extended period. I know, I'm a wuss.


I use both a metal trough and a plywood box brooder. I bought two pieces of the cheap plywood for about $10 each, nailed it together to form an "L" shape and pushed it into a corner. My floor is concrete, so I put the pine shavings directly on the floor, but you could put down a tarp and then shavings.

on processing meat birds we do our own. I was very much the same way you are but once you taste your own meat you wouldn't have it any other way. My hubby does the killing as i cant do that but from there i handle the rest. Keep in mind that their size usually causes them to have painful deaths otherwise with from heart attacks or broken legs. Beware though that because they don't move fast or forage well they are very dependent and so extremely friendly its really a shame!

 

[animallover2202]

I found the breed of breeding chickens I want either silkies or appenzeller spitzhaunen but ill go with any breed

 

[SkinNFluff]

Lady at Orscheltracked me down to tell me they willnot be ordering any more chicks......I'm at thirty-five now...

Remember that old saying: " Just say 'no' ?"

just say no? do you mean like this? no i don't mind that i have to buy at least 6 of them cute little fluffy butts. is this how we should use the word no?

I have been looking for ideas for a brooder. I would love to use a long metal water trough, but they I realized how expensive they were. Does anybody have any other ideas? Preferably cheap or not extremly expensive.

rubbermaid totes here. plan to build a different style out in the garage once i can find the floor.

On

Newbie question: if you raise chickens for eating, do you process yourself or is there a place that will process for you? I wouldn't mind raising some meatbirds for eating, but I don't think I could stomach the processing part. Thanks for the info! DH was reading posts with me this morning and saw your instructional. I came home from work to find a half finished coop! You shamed him properly. I would have built the coop myself but I have a disease that makes it very painful to lift my arms above my head or to lift any amount of weight for an extended period. I know, I'm a wuss. I use both a metal trough and a plywood box brooder. I bought two pieces of the cheap plywood for about $10 each, nailed it together to form an "L" shape and pushed it into a corner. My floor is concrete, so I put the pine shavings directly on the floor, but you could put down a tarp and then shavings.

on processing meat birds we do our own. I was very much the same way you are but once you taste your own meat you wouldn't have it any other way. My hubby does the killing as i cant do that but from there i handle the rest. Keep in mind that their size usually causes them to have painful deaths otherwise with from heart attacks or broken legs. Beware though that because they don't move fast or forage well they are very dependent and so extremely friendly its really a shame!

i will be "processing" our 2 cornish cross chicks here in a couple weeks. i am very firm about not using the word kill. we wont "kill" our meat birds. we just help them transition into the next stage of their life by helping them fulfill their destiny. they will live within us forever. we even named them. the roo is named crispy and the hen is named original. ok maybe i seem a bit warped but i can have my son go to school telling everyone how he was sad that i killed some of his chickens. that is why i "process" them instead.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I would quote evrything, but quite a few people responded. Thanks everybody for the ideas. I think I will get some totes and some plywood. I will be putting these in a stall with a concrete floor and don't care if it gets dirty, it will be cleaned weekly anyways. But I could have two "permant" (would still be able to move) ones made out of plywood in the back 2 corners and some totes that i can move around eaiser as needed. I have to go to lowes and pick up some wood, fenceing, nails, staples, this mesh stuff for covering in my out side runs, and who knowswhat else I will see that I think I need. Too bad lowes dosen't carry chicks lol. Thank you!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

just say no? do you mean like this? no i don't mind that i have to buy at least 6 of them cute little fluffy butts. is this how we should use the word no?

rubbermaid totes here. plan to build a different style out in the garage once i can find the floor.
i will be "processing" our 2 cornish cross chicks here in a couple weeks. i am very firm about not using the word kill. we wont "kill" our meat birds. we just help them transition into the next stage of their life by helping them fulfill their destiny. they will live within us forever. we even named them. the roo is named crispy and the hen is named original. ok maybe i seem a bit warped but i can have my son go to school telling everyone how he was sad that i killed some of his chickens. that is why i "process" them instead.

My garage looked like that for about 3 years lol, i was "busy" (aka lazy). I have two huge barns and a shop conected to one. My biggest barn is going to be full of chickens soon.Andd there are 3 bays to the other one. one on the left, one in the middle, and the one on the right is where the shop is. Well I moved everything from the garage to the middle bay. And poorly stacked it, now you can see a section of my barn floor lol. I will get to it eventually.....maybe.